Tracy Letts' plays haven't quite caught on in Cincinnati. We're yet to see a production locally of August: Osage County, his 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner. Neither the Cincinnati Playhouse nor Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati� have picked up Superior Donuts, his 2011 Tony-nominated script that will be staged by at least eight major regional theaters across the United States during the coming season. However, a local pick-up company will present Letts' latest script at the Clifton Performance Theatre (404 Ludlow Ave.) in a brief run (Sept. 9-18).

While many of Cincinnati’s theaters have announced their 2011-2012 seasons, a few more are putting the finishing touches on what they’ll stage for the coming year. Today I can share with you exciting news from The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center as well as an always popular series at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).

Release features large-format prints, documentary, celebs

The
publicist for photographer Matthew Rolston's book, Talking Heads, The Vent Haven
Portraits (featured in this 2012 CityBeat article), recently sent
photos from Rolston's book-publication party in L.A. Here's an excerpt from the
accompanying release:

"On
Friday, May 10th, actress and author Diane Keaton, renowned art collector Kay
Saatchi and Joel Chen, owner of Los Angeles' top resource for antiques and
vintage furniture JF Chen, celebrated influential American celebrity
photographer and director Matthew Rolston’s new book at JF Chen.
Featuring 100 ‘headshots’ of a rare collection of ventriloquist dummies
unearthed from the intimate and obscure Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell,
Kentucky (the world’s only museum dedicated to the art of ventriloquism), the
book is a departure from the celebrity portraiture for which Rolston is known
and marks his first foray into the world of fine art."

A
documentary about Rolston's project also was shown. Other guests included actor John
C. Reilly and songwriter Diane Warren. Vent Haven, incidentally, is planning an
exhibit of the photos, though not the large-format prints shown at Chen's
store.